Editor's Desk: Christian Spirit

By Michael F. Flach
HERALD Editor
(From the issue of 4/11/02)

It is said that a Christian is someone who shares the suffering of God in the world. If that is true, then we’ve certainly endured enough suffering the past seven months to convert the entire planet. Each day brings more bad news for the Catholic Church. It is impossible to ignore the headlines of abuse allegations, misconduct, suicides, arrests and lawsuits. It also is difficult to think about or concentrate on anything else besides the growing scandal. How far will it reach? When will it end? But there is other "news" out there that is equally disturbing.

The situation in the Middle East is escalating on a daily basis. Pleas from the United States and the Vatican for a cease-fire are going unheeded by both sides. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis appear willing to sit down at the negotiating table.

Another item closer to home is the impending debate on Capitol Hill regarding human cloning. President George Bush has invited leaders from state affiliates of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) to Washington this week to discuss this urgent issue. The gathering was scheduled to take place April 10 at the White House.

"The situation is urgent," said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. "The Senate must quickly pass the Brownback-Landrieu bill before human embryo farms open for business."

Johnson said senators are under great pressure from the pro-cloning biotech industry to support a "phony" counter-proposal -- a bill that would allow mass cloning of human embryos for the specific purpose of killing them in experimentation.

Besides several leaders of the NRLC national organization, invitations have been issued to and accepted by NRLC state leaders from over a dozen states. They will join representatives of numerous other organizations, all united in support of the Brownback-Landrieu bill (S. 1899), which would ban the cloning of human embryos.

Identical legislation (the Weldon-Stupak bill) passed the House last July by a vote of 265-162. But that bill stalled in the Senate after receiving resistance from Democratic leaders and intense lobbying by the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

NRLC officials claim the biotech industry is pushing competing legislation, falsely labeled as a "human cloning ban," which in reality would permit so-called "therapeutic cloning" (that is, the cloning of human embryos for use as medical commodities or in lethal experimentation), but prohibit the implantation of any cloned embryo in a womb, thus requiring that they die.

Pro-life groups regard this "clone and kill" legislation as worse than no legislation at all, because it would require the federal government to ensure that every cloned human embryo is killed. The House decisively rejected this pro-embryo-farming legislation, 249-178, and President Bush has also repeatedly expressed his opposition to it.

Contrary to numerous press reports, NRLC officials maintain, the biotech-backed legislation does not "ban cloning of a human being but allow cloning research to produce stem cells." Rather, the bio-backed legislation allows unrestricted cloning of human embryos for any purpose whatsoever. In contrast, the Brownback-Landrieu bill explicitly allows the use of cloning to produce "cells" -- including stem cells -- but not by first creating and then killing a human embryo to harvest his or her stem cells.

From Bethlehem to Boston to Washington, the news grows darker by the day. Good news is hard to find. Let us share in the suffering of Christ with a true Christian spirit.— M.F.F.

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